A Spectacular Man
by redwesteinde
Summary: Bryce received the kill order for Chuck, not Casey. Bryce/Chuck.


Written for the prompt _"Bryce gets the kill order for Chuck, not Casey" over at LJ. No beta._

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><p>Bryce is a spectacular agent but he is a less than spectacular man.<p>

_This is why he is the best._

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><p>He gets the kill order in a hotel one state over from sunny California. The room is cheap, the walls stained a uniquely grotesque yellow and the bed sheets are hard and crusted with substances unknown. But that's okay, it had never been his intention to sleep here.<p>

Beckman is on the line spouting about 'country', 'national security' and 'duty' sounding for all the world as if she was genuinely apologetic that this is what all Chuck's hard work was going to amount to.

The tone is a lie.

It was _always_ going to end up like this, this Bryce has known.

He doesn't even blink, not even a spark of emotion when he simply nods his head in affirmation.

Like being ordered to assassinate one of oldest friends was just another run of the mill mission.

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><p>Two hours later Bryce is in Burbank, there is a hand gun holstered on his right and a silencer component burning through the fabric of the leather on his left.<p>

He is ready.

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><p>Casey is a soldier through and through but he's also been spending a lot of time with his asset and Bryce is more than aware of Chuck's influence.<p>

He doesn't know what side of the line Casey falls and he will not take any chances.

Casey is out and down for the count, his surveillance equipment corrupted and disabled within 2 minutes.

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><p>This is WHY he is the best.<p>

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><p>It's half after 1 in the morning and he only has 20 minutes to take care of Chuck before Ellie and Devon come home from a late night shift at the hospital.<p>

The apartment looks different in the dark. Gone is the warmth of too wide smiles and the brightness of surprised laughter and in it's place reside a dank blankness that presses in from the walls.

Gun drawn, he creeps his way down the hallway, Chuck should be the only one home but it's safer to tread on the side of caution - Sarah has yet to be accounted for and things tend to go wrong long before they go right wherever Chuck is concerned.

The bedroom isn't locked and Bryce almost shakes his head in disbelief at the sheer idiocy of a man who is supposed to be both highly intelligent and a valuable government asset.

Former valuable government asset.

_Former._

The first thing he notices is that god awful Tron poster that used to hang in their shared dorm room, the second is Chuck sprawled face down on his bed still fully clothed in his nerd herd whites. Sleeping.

Standing over him, Bryce takes note of the dark hair curling gently at the nape of his neck, the soft twitch of his nose with every inhale and the slightly olive skin that has become pale in the moonlight.

Chuck is the very definition of innocence, soft and undisturbed - but still, Bryce does not hesitate.

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><p>Chuck is all too easy to wake.<p>

In his half comatose state Bryce orders him to strip and hands him a duffel bag with a change of clothes. They can take nothing Bryce explains but Chuck is still blinking down at the bag in his hands like it's very existence confounds him.

So Bryce tells him everything, makes him listen, makes him understand.

He can see when it finally dawns on Chuck, the hurt, the betrayal all to obvious on a face as expressive as Chuck's.

Then he's panicking - doesn't want to leave, not his family, not his friends, not anything - but especially not Ellie. So Bryce kisses him, kisses him like he used too where there had only been four walls and a paper due in the morning. He presses into those soft lips, captures his words until only the slick of their lips is the only sound.

When they finally disengage Chuck is panting but quiet and if circumstances were different Bryce would be more than content to keep the other enclosed in his arms until the first ray of sunlight filters through the window.

But they're running out of time and Chuck needed out of his uniform and into the set of clothes Bryce brought about 7 minutes ago.

"This is the only way," he whispers against the others mouth "They would never have let you see your sister again regardless."

This time when he tells Chuck to strip, he complies without complaint.

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><p>They leave the apartment with only 5 minutes to spare to the Woodcomb's return. He told Chuck to leave everything behind, but if Bryce spies Chuck slip a christmas photo of his sister, her boyfriend and that small bearded fellow Morgan into the back pocket of his new jeans, well, Bryce just pretends he doesn't notice.<p>

He will not deny him that.

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><p>Casey will wake sometime in the mid afternoon with a bolstering headache and a few choice words. He assumes the worst and all but barges into Bartowski's room. There appears to be nothing out of place to which he is thankful, if Bryce were going to kill Chuck he would have done it here in his room. Kidnapped then. It takes him approximately 16 minutes to reach Castle and explain the situation to the General.<p>

It is then that he hears of the kill order and that Chuck Bartowski isn't a victim like he first suspected but in fact rogue. He tells her that he found no trace as to where the duo may be heading, privately thinks to himself that they probably won't find any either because it's Bryce-freaking-Larkin and he's bit of a prick like that.

She orders him to look again anyway with a team of specialists, turn the house over if need be. He simply nods like the good little soldier that he is.

As he walks out the door he already knows that this one mission he doesn't want to succeed in. So he makes sure that he doesn't. He may not have known it, but for awhile there - Chuck had been a soldier too. Though more than a little wet behind the ears, Chuck had served his country in one of it's highest degrees..

_And he would not let his country betray him for it._

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><p>As this very conversation takes place, Bryce and Chuck are somewhere huddled up on a carrier importing shipping containers to Hong Kong somewhere in the North Pacific. They're on the deck, laughing, as Bryce translates an elderly asian man's rapid cantonese to Chuck, as said man attempts to teach them to fish from such a great height.<p>

To Bryce's amusement, Chuck is surprisingly adept at it.

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><p><em>Bryce is a spectacular agent but he is a less than spectacular man.<em>

_This is why he is the best._

_But every man has his weakness and Chuck Bartowski had already been his once before._

_The NSA really should have remembered that._


End file.
